Second Rebellion

The Second Rebellion began when rebels across the country backed by District 13 rose up in armed conflict against the Capitol's military forces 75 years after The Dark Days. The leader of the second rebellion was officially President Alma Coin, but the rebellion itself began to gain momentum during the 74th Hunger Games when District 12tributesKatniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark threatened to commit a double suicide. This caused Head GamemakerSeneca Crane to let them both win, which showed that they could overcome the power of the Capitol. The common symbol of defiance in the new group of rebels is Katniss's mockingjay, a bird that the Capitol never intended to create. The rebel forces were presumably comprised of militia fighters from the revolting Districts, alongside better trained and equipped District 13 soldiers. The Capitol's forces were primarily Peacekeepers, but they also utilized mutts to fight the rebels and may have had other security forces.

The first known rebellious activity took place in District 8 after the 74th Hunger Games's Victory Tour. After the train left District 8, a violent riot erupted. Rioters seized control of several strategic positions throughout the district, all while engaging in an active fight with large contingents of Peacekeepers. Although the rebels initially had the upper hand due to the surprise assault, they were unorganized and ill-equipped to engage in sustained fighting between themselves and the better trained and equipped Peacekeeper force. Capitol hovercraft gave air support to the Peacekeepers, bombing rebel positions as the Peacekeepers advanced. Eventually, the Peacekeepers quelled the rebellion and set the entire district under martial law. For a week, no one was permitted outside and electricity and food supply was cut. After this, the martial law was lifted and life was allowed to return to normal. However, a Capitol bomb destroyed the textile factory in the district, after receiving information that the rebellion had been plotted from there.

Shortly after the force field was destroyed, Capitol aircraft launched a massive fire bombing raid on District 12, Katniss's district, burning it to the ground. Only about 800 of District 12's original 8,000 survived the raid. Gale Hawthorne was credited with helping most of the refugees escape into the woods around District 12. After the attack, hovercraft from District 13 appeared and began evacuating the refugees back to 13, where they were granted citizenship and given places to live that far exceeded their poverty-stricken conditions in 12.

Peeta and Katniss were both used to conduct propos, or propaganda spots, for the side they had been taken by. There was a stark contrast in the videos as Mellark's called for a general ceasefire while Everdeen was told to rally the rebels to fight. When Everdeen was taken from the arena, many rebel divisions were struggling to maintain footholds in several districts. However, after one particular propo in which Everdeen stood in front of the wreckage of a destroyed field hospital in District 8 after a Capitol bombing and announced "if we burn, you burn with us," the rebels rallied enough to solidify their forces and launch a major offensive into the Capitol-occupied territory.

After the fighting in District 8, President Snow and Mellark had a Capitol propo. Near the end, Mellark accidentally leaked information regarding a surprise Capitol missile attack on District 13. Immediately after Mellark leaked the information, Snow ordered the cameras cut and the start of Mellark's torture. Multiple bunker buster missiles were launched but due to the warning, casualties were reduced to a minimum, if any at all.

During a retribution propo after the bomb raid, Katniss suffered a mental meltdown due to learning that any actions by her caused pain to Mellark. Finnick also suffered one right after Katniss. In response to both Katniss and Finnick's mental meltdowns, rebel forces launched a rescue mission aimed at freeing Annie Cresta, Peeta Mellark, and Johanna Mason. The rescue mission, crafted by Beetee, involved knock out gas, power failures and a bomb explosion as diversions.

General ground fighting and bomber strikes were the hallmarks of much of the rebellion. Soon, every district had sided with the rebels, except District 2, which was the supplier of most of Panem's military force and also served as their primary base of operations. The primary command center for the Capitol's military forces was a mountain known to the rebels as "the Nut" after Plutarch Heavensbee's comment on the district; "it's a tough nut to crack." After several failed attempts at capturing the mountain complex, Hawthorne, who had previously taken part in both the fighting in District 8 and the liberation of the tributes from the Capitol, put forth the idea of causing avalanches with rebel bombers and suffocating the Capitol forces inside. Several rebel bombers began dropping their payloads on the Nut's upper elevations, triggering avalanches that buried most of the exits from the mountain and crippled the base inside. Several trains carrying survivors made it out of the train tunnel, as the rebels had decided to leave that one path open. Fighting began in the central square of District 2, and a rebel offensive secured the square and the surrounding area. Katniss gave a speech despite the fighting that turned District 2's forces to the rebel side, but was later wounded from a gunshot to the spleen.

The destruction of the Nut and 2's defection crippled the Capitol's military forces, forcing the Capitol's military to withdraw to the city itself. Rebel forces then invaded the city, pushing through in intense urban warfare. The destruction of the Nut meant the loss of the Capitol's air force, leaving the defense of the city to the ground forces. The rebel advance was severely hindered by strategically placed traps, called pods, that were positioned all around the city. These pods ranged from automated gun systems to tracker jackers. Midway through the battle for the city, rebel forces set four central routes directly to the heart of the Capitol--A, B, C, and D lines. After intense block-by-block fighting, the rebels reached the City Circle, the center of the Capitol itself. As a final defensive measure, President Coriolanus Snow had a group of children form a ring around the presidential mansion. A hovercraft marked with a Capitol insignia dropped parachutes similar to those that Hunger Games tributes received in the arenas, but these turned out to be bombs that killed most of the children in the ring and rebel medical teams who responded. The Capitol fell that day. It was later revealed that the aircraft was actually owned by District 13, under orders from President Coin to drop the bombs on the children to end the war by shattering what remained of the Capitol's image. In what was supposed to be Snow's execution, Katniss instead shot President Alma Coin in retaliation for killing her sister, Primrose, who was serving as a medic when the parachute bombs went off. Snow was later found dead, and a trial was to be set for Katniss for killing Panem's acting president. Katniss was cleared of her charges in absentee under a plea of insanity until Gale and Beetee's testimony of their involvement of the bombs at Snow's mansion to justify Katniss's action in killing Coin which helped reclaim her reputation as a hero to Panem, and allowed to return to the under-reconstruction District 12. A lot is left un known about Panem's and Katniss's future after the second rebellion. Katniss and Peeta later go on to have two children. Commander Paylor was most likely a good president for Panem. The districts were freed and the hunger games are over for good. The capitol residents might have gotten their lives back to normal (except maybe the exparents of the kids who were killed during the second rebellion.)

Of the 59 known members of the second rebellion, only 30 survived it.

This is the possible sequence of districts to pry from Capitol rule, based off the books, movies and district information(District 12 is excluded because it was destroyed):